The present invention relates to the technical field of an image recording apparatus into which light-sensitive material magazines each accommodating a light-sensitive material roll of lighted room loading type are loaded, said light-sensitive material roll including an elongated light-sensitive material wound to a roll shape and an extreme end leader portion composed of a non-light-sensitive material and connected to a leading end of the light-sensitive material.
Most of the images recorded on photographic films such as negatives and reversals (which are hereinafter simply referred to as "films") are conventionally printed onto light-sensitive materials by a technique generally called "direct exposure" (analog exposure) in which an image on a film is projected onto a light-sensitive material for a real exposure.
On the other hand, an image recording apparatus that adopts digital exposure has recently been used. In this "image recording apparatus", an image recorded on a film is read photoelectrically and converted into digital signals, which are subjected to various kinds of image processing to produce image data for recording; a light-sensitive material is exposed by scanning with recording light modulated in accordance with the image data, thereby recording a (latent) image. Further, a digital photoprinter into which the image recording apparatus is incorporated and in which the recorded image by the image recording apparatus is subjected to developing processing and outputted a print image as a finished print (photograph) has been commercialized.
The image recording apparatus uses various types of light-sensitive materials such as a silver halide light-sensitive material, a thermally developable light-sensitive material, a light- and heat-sensitive recording material and the like.
Many of the light-sensitive materials are supplied to the image recording apparatus in the state of the light-sensitive material roll wound a web of the elongated light sensitive material and cut to a size corresponding to the size of a hard copy such as the finished print which is to be created in the image recording apparatus, although some materials are previously cut to sheets having a specified length before being supplied to the image recording apparatus. Further, a specified magazine accommodating the light-sensitive material roll is loaded in a specified position of the image recording apparatus in many cases.
For example, a specified magazine accommodating a light-sensitive material roll is loaded in a specified position of the image recording apparatus. The light-sensitive material pulled out of the magazine is cut to sheets of a specified length corresponding to a print size, and the thus cut sheets are transported on a specified passage, that is, a specified transport path and subjected to various processing steps such as exposure, development and drying thereby providing (finished) prints. Alternatively, the light-sensitive material is transported on a specified passage in an elongated state and subjected to the various processing steps such as exposure, development and drying before the material is finally cut to the prints.
The light-sensitive materials include also a lighted room loading type light-sensitive material called a QL paper. This is a material including an elongated light-sensitive material roll and an extreme end leader portion, the latter being composed of a non-light-sensitive material, connected to a leading end of the former and wound around the roll twice so that the roll can be loaded into a magazine even in a lighted room.
In a conventional lighted room loading type light-sensitive material roll, a user inserted the light-sensitive material roll into a magazine, pulled the extreme end leader portion out of the magazine and cut it out of the light-sensitive material before he loaded the magazine into an image recording apparatus.
In the conventional method however, the user cannot cut straight the extreme end leader portion perpendicularly to a longitudinal direction, that is, a direction in which the light-sensitive material is transported. Thus, the cut portion may be oblique or the light-sensitive material may be exposed to light in the vicinity of the cut portion. If the cut portion is oblique, the light-sensitive material cannot be inserted into transporting rollers straight and the passing-through property of the leading end of the light-sensitive material is deteriorated, whereupon jamming or other inconveniences may occur.
To cope with the above problem, after the user cuts the extreme end leader portion and loads the magazine into the image recording apparatus, the portion of the light-sensitive material initially pulled out of the magazine is cut to a strip shape in a specified length perpendicularly to the direction in which the light-sensitive material is transported. As a result, there arises however a problem that the light-sensitive material is wasted.